Last week, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was in the media spotlight for holding a series of one-on-one meetings with leading GOP presidential candidates, including Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann. This week, for an encore, the notoriously anti-immigration Sheriff from Maricopa County has established himself as a birther. Yes, his new obsession is President Obama’s birth certificate.

Arpaio’s investigation comes in response to a complaint filed by the Surprise, Arizona Tea Party, which alleges that Obama may be using a forged birth certificate. “I believe Sheriff Arpaio and his Cold Case Posse will be thorough and complete in their investigation,” a spokesman for the group said.

The Cold Case Posse is an officially-sponsored all-volunteer group of people with skills and backgrounds that make them qualified to investigate cases. The group has been inactive in recent months due to “budgetary limitations within the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office,” but apparently a wild goose chase looking into the veracity of the president’s birth certificate is an appropriate use of funds.